Hanale Bishop and Meghan Au, two of Hawaii’s 2014 Terra Madre delegates are hosting our first luau at their farm and home, Homestead Poi.

The proceeds from this event will help fund future Terra Madre delegates in 2016.

For our August event, there will be a tour of the farm and a home grown meal featuring limu and Samoan crab salad, ginger chocolate ulu kulolo, wild boar, Alaska salmon lomi lomi, poke, ulu and kalo poi, mamaki tea, lau lau, and more. Our menu will continue to take shape as we gather the freshest ingredients from around the island. Our contributors to-date include Ma’o Organic Farms, Madre Chocolate, Olive Tree Cafe, Big Wave Tomatoes, Paepae o He’eia.

Homestead Poi focuses on feeding Waiahole, O’ahu by providing poi and produce to community members at Ben Parker Farmer’s Market. Surplus poi and produce extend to Kailua, O’ahu members through Hale Ke Aloha ‘Ai Pono and Mo’ili’ili folks at Kokua Market on King Street.

Homestead Poi is founded by Hanale M. Bishop, taro farmer and singer/songwriter. Hanale is partners at the farm with his father Daniel Bishop and Chance Tom. Poi-making helpers include his Bishop brothers and his girlfriend, Meghan Au.

On Saturday August 8, 2015, Hawai’i SEED and Slow Food in Hawai’i are hosting a seed saving and cleaning workshop especially for people who are already conducting seed exchanges on Oahu. The general public is invited as well.

Lyn Howe, who works with The Hawai’i Public Seed Initiative through the Kohala Center, will be coming over to share her expertise on seed saving and sharing. Additionally, we want to use this event as an opportunity to develop a master plan for seed exchanges so we can publicize and support one another in these efforts.

We also would like to know if you have a special lesson or skill related to seed saving that you would like to share at the workshop. Please let us know byJuly 20, 2015 if you have something to contribute.

The free workshop will start at 9:00 a.m. The gathering will be held at Waimea Valley, 59-864 Kamehameha Hwy., Haleiwa, HI 96712 from 9:00 a.m. – Noon on Oahu’s North Shore. Any questions, please contact Laurie Carlson atlauriecarlson@me.com

Please bring a dish which defines your roots. The more personal the dish the better. Think grandma’s spanakopita, borsht or maybe Taiwanese dumplings. Come with a story to share!

We are Slow Food O’ahu so please envision food that is good for you, good for the people who grow it and good for planet. Let’s get as close to LOCAL as possible! (You may have to make a few changes from mom’s original frozen vegetable recipe.)

Our host in Kaimuki (with an ocean view) can accommodate 7 guests for this Slow Supper. Note: There is a cat on the premises, so if you are allergic, take some medications !!!

There is no fee for this event. It is limited to members of Slow Food. The membership may be international or USA. To join, go to www.slowfoodusa.org. If you’re joining our chapter, be sure to choose the O’ahu chapter.

The suppers encourage local members in different parts of the island to get to know their fellow members, and welcoming Slow Food members from other parts of the world who might happen visiting the islands. And of course, to celebrate our local farmers, producers, and their bounty.

Slow Food O’ahu is pleased to host a dinner of instruction and consumption of food from India. Our instructors, Pratisha and Kavita, have both been immersed in the Indian kitchen since they were young children, learning to cook by watching their mothers and grandmothers. Born in India and raised in the US, both Pratisha and Kavita have adapted traditional Indian dishes for the western kitchen. Pratisha’s specialties include Bengali and Punjabi dishes and Kavita cooks dishes from the south Indian regions of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Pratisha’s mother is a nutritionist and the recipes she uses are her healthy adaptations of traditional food.

Be one of the lucky sixteen to have a place at the table when Michele Haines returns to Honolulu and delights us with her food demonstrations and outstanding cuisine. She is looking forward to shopping at our farmers’ markets and local stores for the best and freshest locally-sourced ingredients. The meal will be sea side at a beach house in Hauula.

On this visit, she will allow four of us to be sous chefs under her guidance. Sous chefs will arrive at 10:00 and prep the meal with the chef.

Chef Michele’s Pennsylvania restaurant (www.springmill.com) has consistently garnered four-star ratings in ‘Open Table’ and ‘Yelp’. Slow Food O’ahu foodies had the pleasure of learning how to make brioche with her two years ago. Last year she delighted us with a dinner and omelet flipping brunch. Chef Michele continues as a Slow Food ambassador, continuing her earlier efforts to introduce the Slow Food philosophy to that country and looks forward to her time with us in Hawai’i.

If you wish to be a sous chef, please indicate when signing up. Please bring a beverage of your choice.

You don’t have to head for the mountains or the rainforest to find edible treasures. Join Slow Food O`ahu for a foraging adventure in urban Honolulu and be amazed by what you’ll discover. Summertime fruits to look forward to – White Sapote, Sun Sapote, Guavas…

Dr. Nat Bletter of Madre Chocolate will be our very own Euell Gibbons, guiding us into the urban ‘wilds’ of Honolulu from 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. Wear sun protection and bring water, a fork & spoon to sample goodies, and paper and plastic bags to collect items in. The fee is $10.

Foster Garden is an oasis of peace and serenity in bustling downtown Honolulu. Did you know it has a butterfly garden? An edible garden that features double coconut, cacao and `ulu trees? Slow Food O`ahu has arranged a private tour for its members and friends, with focus on these aspects of Foster Garden. Our very own docent, Lana Brodzaik, and SFO member, Kate Riley, who is also a Foster Garden volunteer, will share their vast knowledge with us of this gem on Sunday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to Noon.

We are limited to 20 participants who are SFO members. Although the event is FREE, you must pay for individual admission to Foster Garden ($3) upon arrival. It’s a good idea to bring an umbrella and mosquito protection. Sign up below:

Join us for a Slow Food O’ahu “pasta party” where we make, cook, and eat our own freshly made pasta.

With four KitchenAid machines, all participants will be busy getting their hands in the dough and running it through the machines to achieve just the right consistency for linguine. Delicioso! Come prepared for action. Aprons might be a good idea.

We’ve tried recipes, different flours, and different flour combinations-Italian kitchen god Mario Batali uses ’00’ flour-and we’ve come up with our own favorite, best suited to the Hawai`i climate.

We will provide all the ingredients for pasta-making, three sauces to complement the fresh goodness of home-made pasta, a refreshing salad, and our kitchen-tested recipe. You bring enthusiasm, your choice of beverage, and anything else that you wish to share.

Slow Food O’ahu invites you to join us for a unique and delicious Buddhist dinner by chef Megumi Odin. Megumi will create and serve a beautiful vegan Buddhist food at the Soto Mission in Nu’uanu. She will put together a special menu for Slow Food of Indian flavors which will include the following: Rainbow swiss chard, Dahl soup, corn chickpea beet green pakorawith kale arugula salad, flavorful rice, Chapati bread, cashew tomato cardamon curry, spicy Indian okura brussell sprouts stir fry

vegetables, Chai pudding.

The Soto Mission, where this event will be held, does not allow alcoholic beverages, so please do not bring any BYOB for this event.

About the chef… Megumi Odin left Peace Cafe, the much-beloved restaurant she started almost five years ago, to follow her creative inspiration to the next level. In September, the chef began the first vegan restaurant in Honolulu, Satori Hawaii, a “pop-up” in the Soto Mission of Hawaii serving Contemporary Shojin Ryori (Buddhist Cuisine) meals that are vegan and gluten-free. Satori uses local and organic produce, brown rice, and no cane sugar. Instead, Megumi uses maple syrup or coconut sugar, sparingly. The ingredients exclude garlic and onion, which Megumi abstains from for spiritual reasons. Satori’s menu is often Japanese, but also includes Western, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Indian and other Asian influences, to convey the experience of visiting a particular country through food.

With Satori, Megumi wanted to create a warm and intimate atmosphere, like eating at her grandmother’s home in Tokyo, the place where Megumi learned mindful, healthy cooking and eating. Megumi even wears a kimono she received from her grandmother, who is 96 years old.

“Ikitoshi ikerumono subete ni ai to kansha wo. Itadakimasu”-To eat with respect and appreciation for all living things, is a traditional Buddhist saying her grandmother used that Megumi still holds dear. Guests of Satori feel those sentiments in the simplest of ingredients prepared with loving consideration.